A major cause to the spread of AIDS in the general population is the presence of IV drug users who share and reuse hypodermic syringes to inject drugs. Infection can be spread from AIDS patients in hospitals and medical facilities through accidental needle sticks from needles used on infected patients. Used syringes with extended needles present a risk to medical personnel and sanitation employees and others in the disposal chain.
The gravity of the threat posed by AIDS and the fact that the main vector of the spread of the dreaded disease is through reuse of syringes by IV drug users has resulted in intense activity to develop the most practical, most reliable, easily assemblable, mass-producible syringe.
There are a number of syringes of different designs which have needles which will retract at the end of the injection cycle. Most of these have never reached the market because of various deficiencies. Prime among the usual deficiencies of the prior art are problems of complexity, reliability, cost and ease of use. The most commonly used syringes are 1 cc and 3 cc syringes which must be mass-produced at the rate of millions per day. Cost is a significant factor both in manufacture of the parts and assembly of the device. High speed production requires molds with 64 cavities or more to reduce unit cycle time. Therefore, molded structures within the barrel that require collapsing core pins such as are shown in much of the art are unlikely to be producible at competitive costs.
One of the problems of the prior art of retractable syringes is the sheer number and complexity of parts which must be formed and assembled. Other problems with the prior art are dependence on flexing or breaking of internal parts by the plunger in order to release the retraction mechanism and use of a diaphragm at the end of the plunger which must be penetrated by a needle holding member and spring. These structures present serious quality control and assembly problems. Small broken off pieces can present a risk of hang-ups. Hooks are often used to releaseably secure retraction mechanisms. Hooks present difficult holding and control problems, may cause retention of air bubbles upon filling and may be undesirably temperature sensitive.
The prior art frequently has a two-piece barrel in order to be able to assemble a retraction device in the nose. This requires at least an additional part and assembly step. It is still necessary to pass the sharp injection needle through a small opening often while compressing a spring before the two parts can be assembled. The tiny needles are produced in the form of coil tubing and vary significantly from straightness after they are cut to length. This leads to difficult assembly problems if the needle must be passed through a small opening. The extremely sharp tip will catch the edge of a hole and jam the production line.
The rare prior art that employs a front mounted retraction mechanism in a one-piece barrel with a plugged hollow plunger, Tsao U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,018, among other things does not show reduced barrel area to prevent excessive blowout pressure, employs engaging flanges to secure all retraction parts, requires concurrent distortion of internal parts and flanges to effect release, cumulating in excessive force required to retract and requires ventilation holes because of a compartmented barrel.
The prior art has not produced a retractable nonreusable tamperproof syringe for mass production and assembly which is simple, reliable, cost effective, easy to use and retract, looks like a conventional syringe, has few parts which are easy to make and assemble, is not temperature sensitive and not subject to danger of premature retraction.
The prior art has not recognized a retraction mechanism with separable parts that relies entirely on clamping force or friction at a smooth walled reduced diameter transition zone in the barrel with mating lands which are slidably or separably released in response to relatively low thumb pressure while having resistance to premature retraction and high blowout pressure resulting from high pressure produced in the fluid chamber during an injection. The prior art has not recognized that such a structure can be molded as a one piece outer body over a core that can be pulled out from behind allowing the retraction mechanism to be easily pushed into place from behind, steered by the narrow nose portion. Neither does the prior art in such a combination realize the desirable non-cumulation of forces resisting retraction in order to minimize the thumb force required, having a most simple tamperproof feature and the fewest number of easily made parts.
The syringe plunger assembly has a combination of features not found in a prior art syringe. A head end which acts like a piston when installed in a syringe barrel has a reduced diameter front end having an opening and a dislodgeable stopper slidingly mounted in the opening projecting forwardly from the tip. Cooperating lands within the opening and on the head of the dislodgeable stopper seal the opening into the hollow interior of the plunger. The area of the stopper is relatively small when compared to the area exposed to the piston, which compresses fluid in a chamber below the piston. The ratio of the total area of the fluid chamber to the fluid exposed area of the stopper is at least two to one, more preferably three to one or more so that the stopper requires less holding force without blowing out back into the internal cavity. The cooperating lands have sufficient length so that the stopper can move back to the tip when the plunger moves forward at the end of an injection stroke without unsealing the plunger opening. A reduced holding force is sufficient to prevent blowout of the stopper after the stopper has been moved back to the tip because the stopper is exposed to a lower pressure generated force because of its relatively smaller area. The back of the plunger is vented so that entry of retractable parts which upon retraction finish dislodging the stopper and carry it back into the cavity, do not generate internal pressure that can blow out the nose of the syringe carrying any residual fluid with it. The thumb cap on the plunger is received and recessed into the opening at the back of the barrel when retraction occurs. The plunger cannot be grasped after this occurs to help prevent reuse.
These features and more are found in the inventive combination herein further disclosed which is especially suited for high speed production and assembly at low cost.